The European Innovation Council (EIC) is part of the Horizon Europe framework programme. With the EIC, the EU addresses major issues: while the European research basis is very strong, the bloc struggles to turn the science into marketable products, and then to scale the businesses up. Also, the EU lacks disruptive innovation that creates new markets.
The EIC offers three funding lines to bridge the gaps (“valleys of death”) between lab and enterprise and to stimulate breakthrough innovation:
- EIC Pathfinder, targeting early-stage research on breakthrough technologies;
- EIC Transition, targeting technology maturation from proof of concept to validation;
- EIC Accelerator, targeting development and scale-up of deep-tech/disruptive innovations by start-ups and SMEs.
Beneficiaries of all three funding lines furthermore have access to additional support services, like coaching, mentoring, access to business partners and innovation ecosystems.
You can find detailed information on the EIC on the European Commission’s website.
EuroTech Universities and the European Innovation Council
Both the Pathfinder and the Transition programmes provide excellent opportunities for researchers working at universities of science and technology. The two programmes comprise bottom-up (open to any field of science or technology) as well as top-down (challenge-driven) approaches. While the EIC Pathfinder calls target low Technology Readiness Levels (1-4), with a proof of principle as an outcome, the EIC Transition calls address the transition to innovation at TRL 3 to 5/6 (prototype demonstrated in relevant environment).
As an alliance, we support applications for collaborative projects under the EIC that count several EuroTech Universities (min. 3) amongst the project partners and are coordinated by one of them. Find out more here.